Speaker 1: 0:14

Hello everyone. My name is Ron McCauley, I am a junior at Alhambra High School and I will be reading this morning's passage, which is Matthew, chapter 25, verses 31 to 46. When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. Throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Speaker 1: 0:48

Then the king will say to those on his right come, you, who are blessed by my father, take your inheritance. The kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me. Then the righteous will answer him, lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you, a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you. When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The king will reply I tell you the truth. Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.

Speaker 1: 1:42

Then he will say to those on his left depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me in. I needed clothes and you did not clothe me. I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me. They also will answer Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger, or in needing clothes, or sick or in prison, and did not help you? He will reply I tell you the truth. Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. This is the word of the Lord.

Speaker 2: 2:36

Thanks be to God. Thanks, ron, good job. All right, it's good to be with you. We're talking about judgment and hell. Happy Sunday. This is gonna be fun If you're with us online. So good to be with you today as well. My name is Lawrence, one of the pastors here. Maybe you're just taking a peek in the window checking this place out. We'd love to invite you into the room and just participate with this faith community. It's really powerful.

Speaker 2: 3:01

We've been going through the gospel according to Matthew now for three and a half years and we're actually finishing up chapter 25 today. There's 28 chapters, so we're actually almost there. This is going to be today, the last public teaching of Jesus. The next week we hop into the passion of Christ and so we are flying. This has been an incredible journey. In fact, the last bit of time we've been looking at a series of parables and, just as a reminder, parables are made up stories. These aren't true stories, but Jesus would make these stories up in order to make very specific points to a very specific group of people, and Jesus has been giving these over the last couple of months that we've kind of dove into the gospel According to Matthew, these parabolic stories, to describe a very real future event, which is his return, and we're living as we've looked at.

Speaker 2: 3:56

We're living at the end of the age and I've defined this for you before. But the end of the age actually began the moment that he ascended to the right hand of the Father. This is Jesus and it will be the end. The end will come of the end of the age when he comes back the second time. We actually call that the second advent In today's text. This is actually the conclusion of his great teachings and it's often been called the parable of the sheep and the goats, and it's actually, in my opinion, not a parable. It has a parabolic element to it which is really just one line. It refers to his return, his judgment, to be like an event of a shepherd separating sheep from goats, but that's the only parabolic element in this. Now, I would argue that this is an incredibly stylized summary of this depiction of this real future event, which is what we call the last great judgment, or it is the great divorce at the end of history.

Speaker 2: 4:55

Now, scripture declares that all of history will end with the unification of all things underneath the lordship of Jesus. But before the unification of all things, we're told that there will be a judgment of all people and that judgment there will be literally a fork in the road and it will be a moment in time where humanity will no longer be making decisions for itself, that now, king Jesus, lord of all things, will have the final say. And this can be a very terrifying passage, I think, for a lot of us. Oftentimes it's a hard text because it deals with something that we're actually uncomfortable with, which is those elements of the unknown where we will be giving an account, where we will have to one day face our king and be given account of all that we have done, all that we have said and all that we thought. And this is a judgment of works. But this judgment of works doesn't violate, replace or substitute the gospel of grace. I would actually argue that this judgment of works is a judgment of what should be evidence of grace.

Speaker 2: 6:04

And, at the end of the day, you'll notice that everything that Jesus puts forth, in what he praises and what he condemns, is all driven by one concept. It's driven by the concept of relationship, and we understand, or maybe we're learning, that God's being, his very essence, the very essence of his being, is actually relationship. God is a community within himself, and so to be made in the image of God means that we were made for a relationship with God and with one another, but not relationship where we exalt ourself over another. That is because, really, sin has twisted what real relationships are supposed to look like. But he has come when what Jesus modeled for us so perfectly in this life, to show us which is this self-giving, sacrificial love. And this is the means and the key to understanding what God intended in our relationship with him, our relationship with one another, and it's the only way in which we will ever see the right understanding of ourselves as it's exposed. And so the issue that we have before us is that the very thing that Jesus condemns in his final teaching is the very thing that Jesus condemns in his final teaching is the very thing that our culture, our society and our world actually elevates.

Speaker 2: 7:25

After the enlightenment, the moving into the 20th century and after the end of World War II, you saw this ever-increasing emphasis on the individual, and it was at the pinnacle of human existence. And with the rise of individualism, you saw this ever increasing awareness of isolation and anxiety and depression and despair, and it was manifesting itself in ways that I think that we can't even really get our heads around. And the church has not been immune to this reality. And, sadly, what we have done is that we have not come with our faith, with a desire to see our individualism eradicated and given then the right concepts of what self means. Instead, what we've done is brought our individual heart to the gospel.

Speaker 2: 8:15

There's a funny story from comedian Michael Pritchard that talks about how he once spent some time trying to help this young man that was struggling with things in life. And this young man finally told him I'm so sick of other people telling me what to do, I'm just going to go join the Marines. And so what we do as the individual is we say I want Jesus to be my savior, but I still want to be the ruler and the decider of my own fate in my own life. And again, remember, this is the human condition. Right, right from the very beginning in Genesis, we see something, we desire it, we take it, and then destruction. And you see this biblical pattern over and over. It's the human condition. Over and over and over again, it's the same pattern, and this passage will not leave you feeling comfortable with that decision.

Speaker 2: 9:07

What decision? Yeah, that I want Jesus as my Savior, but I still want to be the ruler and the decider of my own fate and my own life. And so what this passage does is it provides us the necessity of a balanced life as a Christian, balancing the harmony of both the love of God and the wrath of God, the fear of God. And Scripture has a lot to say about the fear of the Lord. One of the first things it says is that the fear of the Lord is actually the beginning of wisdom. Now we're told in 1 John that perfect love casts out fear, and all I would say is that, for the Christian, what's happened is fear has actually been transformed into awe and reverence. As Christians, it's not a fear that causes us to run away from God, but for those of us who have been touched by the gospel of Christ, it's a fear of actually offending God, who has shown so much love for us, that to fear God is to fear offending that, the love that keeps us on the right path. But it's the love of Christ that actually compels us towards like faithful living. Think of it like a tightrope. You need both sides, equilibrium to balance, to stay on this line as you move forward, and the path is narrow in life it's just as it's narrow on a tightrope and there's only one way to go. There's only one way to travel, and if you go on any other direction, either side you're going to fall off. And this is the picture before us that we actually have in this final judgment. We have four players that we have been unpacking in this the last two weeks that are before us.

Speaker 2: 10:49

In this tale, first you have the king, you have the blessed, you have the least and then you have the cursed. So the king the king represents the son of man, jesus. Then you have the blessed, which are those who have been faithful or righteous, and they are called the sheep at the beginning of the story. Then you have the cursed, those who have lived selfishly and have not met the needs of the least, and they are called cursed. And then you have the least. This is the group that defines the judgment of the blessed and the cursed. And then you have the least. This is the group that defines the judgment of the blessed and the cursed, and what you see is that the thing that Jesus puts as the supreme litmus test for those who are actually his and those who are not. It's not theological, it's extremely practical, it's personal and it's actually within grasp of every single human being, and that's really important for us to remember and understand that.

Speaker 2: 11:46

Now, jeff covered the first half of this passage last week, and the challenge for us is that those of us who have been saved by grace don't know really how to reconcile this topic, because it creates this discomfort in us, because it seems like the emphasis here is upon what we do, to which we would say but isn't the gospel what God has done for us in Christ? And what we need to reconcile is that, for the Jewish mind and what should be for the Christian mind, which would be us as 21st century followers, is that a faith that saves is a faith that actually works. Paul, the apostle Paul, in the New Testament, praised the Thessalonian church for their work of faith to work out their salvation. In fact, just to ask for a prayer request. In three weeks, I'm actually taking a group of 15 people over to Greece and Turkey to do a 10-day kind of walk out Paul's missionary journey. It's going to be fun, and so we're going to get to unpack some of that in person. But Jesus. What he's doing here is he's judging what should be the results of this actual inward transformation and regeneration, and what we think is is that because I've been saved by grace, I will not be judged Now. Your judgment may not lead to eternal separation, but you're going to be judged Personally.

Speaker 2: 13:05

A false dichotomy that I was told in my early faith was that God doesn't remember our sins. Like he doesn't remember our sins and he probably won't remember them in heaven. Some of you maybe have heard something like that as you grew up or in the past, or maybe as a grown person. First of all, I would just say I think that's speculative. I think that we will remember them, and for sure I know that God remembers them, because what would the purpose be for the son of man holding in his body the marks of our sin, like if God really forgot? Like what happened is you know?

Speaker 2: 13:40

You take a couple of Psalms that are poetry to describe a certain parts of forgiveness and the fullness and the completeness of his forgiveness, and then we say things like you know, as far as the East is from the west, he remembers our sin no more. Now it's important to note here that what you are saying is he's not remembering, he's not holding it against us any longer, but he doesn't forget. I mean, think about it, right? If he forgot, then you'd be like in heaven, right With Jesus, and you'd be like what are those things in your hand, what are those holes in your hand? And he'd look down and he'd be like I actually have no idea. I keep asking the father and he doesn't remember either, right, or what tears would there be to wipe away? It says that it will wipe away every tear. What tears, then, would there be to wipe away? It says that it will wipe away every tear. What tears, then, would there be to wipe away if we weren't seeing all of the ways and the opportunities that we missed to serve Jesus and we saw that we blew it?

Speaker 2: 14:38

I think that this is a terrifying picture of judgment that is actually necessary in order for us, like as human beings, to learn that we are not the lords of this world. I also believe that this judgment is necessary because it's the last judgment of all false securities, and I don't believe that Jesus wants us to feel comfortable with actually living apathetic lives. So for some of us, you know, we sit there and be like does this make you feel uncomfortable? It's actually meant to make us feel uncomfortable, jesus, I think is okay here making us feel uncomfortable. And you see, throughout history where the church has held on to this strong belief that eternity begins first with this final judgment and that eternal destiny is hinged on how the world actually responds to the gospel, this message, how people respond to the living Christ, that every time the church is actually held strongly to that conviction and believed it and not just push it aside in embarrassment. That the church has become truly missional, like it has become evangelistic, that it has lived with this urgency and vitality that I believe can oftentimes just be missing in our culture today as we become embarrassed with doctrines like hell and sin and judgment and what we do we can find ourselves doing this so often is we can just reduce Jesus to a soft God that actually doesn't like to correct their kids and what this is.

Speaker 2: 16:12

These types of passages, this one specifically, is meant to shake us to the core. I mean it's really interesting. You look at the lack of theology here. You look at just like feeding ministries and sheltering ministries and visitation ministries. That's all being summed up into these three categories. These are all basic, they're all mundane, they're all very unflashy, yet they are given Jesus's highest honors, and we need to take note, because blessedness, those who are blessed in this blessed is to be happy. That's the meaning of it in the Greek, where it was written.

Speaker 2: 16:49

But I think, though, for us, we need to reframe and rethink the word happiness, because happiness for much of us is driven by this false American promise that every person, every American, deserves the right and the pursuit of happiness, and I would argue that we could pursue happiness. But the definition within the American context of happiness is usually typically material accumulation, right or like things like hashtag self-care or like I'm worried about doing me, like this is about me, and, frankly, it's just not biblical. And the definition of happiness, the true interpiece, the meaning and purpose, comes through self sacrifice, and so blessedness or happiness is actually the outcome of self forgetfulness being worked out in this self sacrificing love, and what Jesus does is he puts the kingdom within reach of every human being. Now I want to be very clear that you can't take this one teaching of Jesus about his return and create your entire theological grid out of it, because it's missing a lot of components, and purposefully so. So, when he judges justly, his mercy, his judgment, his love, they all really function together.

Speaker 2: 18:12

And I think that the church did a great disservice to God when they tried to separate God's wrath from God's love. And his wrath is love violated, because sin robs him of what he loves, which is people. And we need to understand that this outworking of the gospel is actually here, it's within our reach, because Jesus is calling us to examine the fruitfulness of a gospel-transformed life, of how we have lived among not just anyone, among not just anyone, but the world's least wanted, the least cared for, the most fragile, the most vulnerable. He says that the true litmus test of the outpouring of my love, that this is the reality. Now, for some of us, we may ask the question but like, okay, if that's the test, that's what we're against. Well, what about those people who've never heard? But like, okay, if that's the test, that's what we're against. Well, what about those people who've never heard? Right, I would just simply say, in my opinion, that God will judge people based on the light that was available to them. I don't need to worry about any of the things beyond that, because I trust that the Jesus I love will be the same Jesus that judges, and I don't have to concern myself with that.

Speaker 2: 19:26

And here we see that Jesus is actually bringing a close to his public teaching and this is so beautiful to me and he brings it all the way back around to his first big sermon, the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes, which is blessed are the merciful. Merciful for they shall receive mercy. It's the same thing that you actually see all throughout like thrust, all throughout the scriptures. Philippians 2, 3 says do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain consent. Rather, in humility, value others above yourself, not looking for your own interests, but each of you, the interest of others.

Speaker 2: 20:05

Now our society and it's pushing this concept of this like individualism, and this's pushing this concept of this individualism and this individual is the supreme good in creation has actually done a great destruction to the human heart. That's created nothing more than war, than violence and more despair. And what I think we have to grasp is that individual is not a part of God's vocabulary. Let me explain. He created us all uniquely, even right now, the 7.4 billion people on this planet. You are very unique. You have very unique gifts, you have very unique tools, you have a unique look, you have a unique fingerprint, like all of that.

Speaker 2: 20:45

But as far as individual, he also didn't care for assimilation or absorption of person into the masses, like he didn't want us to be robots either, but we were created for community. I mean, in the very beginning God said it's not good for man to be alone, and he would argue that you actually can't be defined as a person apart from the other. It's not until we get next to someone else and say, oh, here's where our differences are. This is what's unique and beautiful in you and unique and beautiful in me. And the scriptures declare that the person, your own uniqueness, is actually discovered in relationship to others, and that's thrust through this whole thing, because that's what it means to be made actually in the image of God.

Speaker 2: 21:30

And so the thrust of their blessedness, the outworking of this interior change of the gospel, it's in their service, not just to anyone, but the service to the least. And then the righteous will answer the Lord. When did I see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did I see you a stranger and invite you in, or no clothes and clothe you? When did I see you sick or in prison and visit you and the king will reply. Truly, I tell you, whatever you did of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you did. For me and for some of you, this actually brings great comfort because you're like okay, if that's the test, I feel like I'm doing okay right there. And for others of us it brings immediate distress because you recognize that you have maybe in the very near past, a lot of things that you've done wrong, that there are people that you purposed in your heart not to help because it was too much of an inconvenience for you. And I think what we do is we have a hard time reconciling that. Whatever I'm doing, I'm doing to Jesus when he says this Proverbs.

Speaker 2: 22:49

Chapter 14, verse 31, says Whoever presses the poor shows contempt for their maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God. And all the way from the Pentateuch, which is the first five books of the Bible, to the end of scriptures, what we see is God, like, seems to have this special place in his heart for the most unwanted, the most broken, ring a bell. Any of us fit into that category, and so, in this second half of this teaching, the question is what does he say to the cursed, to the goats. Well, we heard last week about the sheep, and what do the sheep represent? It's in the Old Testament. This was the animal for sacrifice. It was considered to be clean. It was something that was sacrificed as an offering to God. But the goats were actually considered unclean animals and so there was this separation. The cursed were those who never received Jesus, and their activity actually reflected that. It became the litmus test, the evidence of that.

Speaker 2: 23:54

Jesus said things like you will know a tree by its fruit, he says. And then he says in here, like he will say to those on his left depart from me. This word depart is actually the same word that's used in the Great Commiction, which we'll see at the very end of Matthew. It's go descending somewhere, depart from me, and I believe that this departure is actually a departure from the possibility of a relationship with God. Maybe some of you have heard from Romans 6, 23,.

Speaker 2: 24:22

The wages of sin is death or a departure of the possibility of a relationship with God. But also it's important to know that sin is not simply something that requires punitive action. Sin is also referred to as a disease that needs a remedy and healing and, unfortunately, those who find themselves separated from a relationship with God. They can't be healed, and so they have this like perpetual illness. And it never changes the fact that God continues to be the good physician. It doesn't change the horrors and the terrors of hell for those who find themselves there, because God takes everything that is his and he leaves us with the one thing that is intrinsically theirs, which is themselves.

Speaker 2: 25:07

And remember, it's not good for man to be alone. He said for I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty. You gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty. You gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me in. I needed clothes and you did not clothe me. I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me. I want to be very careful.

Speaker 2: 25:29

It's not the works that Jesus is concerned with. He's concerned with the people which comes from an act you know this. Like you know this, you could go out and serve the poor. You could go out and give somebody a drink. You could go out and, like you know, donate some clothes. But your heart could also be wrong in the wrong place, the wrong attitude I mean.

Speaker 2: 25:54

Paul talks about this himself. He says in 1 Corinthians 13,. He says I could do signs and wonders, I could preach, I could offer up my body as a martyr, but if I have not love, it's nothing, it means nothing, it accomplishes nothing, and it's incredible. And the nothingness of their lives will follow them to the loneliness, and the nothingness of their lives will follow them to the loneliness, to the loneliness of their eternity. And the cursed are cursed because they rejected Jesus's place for them, because it says that he was cursed so that we can have life. And so for me, the real terror in this passage is one what about those who have said, eh, no, thank you, and just rejected it? No, I don't want that. Or even more, I mean, for some of us in the room that know better, like we actually know, those who have said I believe in Jesus and I think I'm okay which is really more of this story what it's about but actually have never tasted the real life, the salvation that Jesus has actually come to offer, for I was hungry and you gave me nothing. I was thirsty and you gave me nothing.

Speaker 2: 27:09

There's the litmus that says that love actually compels us towards self-sacrificing love. He's not right here. He's not interested in our theology, he's not interested in your denomination. He's interested in the most basic acts that actually reveal the truth and the sincerity of the gospel in you, in me. And so what does it mean to be cursed Just to get right to it? It's the hell that we have chosen, it's our choice. We've chosen it. When he says put them hell, is when he says put them out of the presence of God. This work in the Greek actually literally means relationship. I know that this has been really helpful for me.

Speaker 2: 27:51

I've shown some of you guys this a long time ago, but this is kind of the whole, the big story synopsis, from beginning to the end. So in the beginning you have heaven and earth, all is one, everybody's here, this is in the garden. And then what happens? Is the human condition right? We then decide we're gonna be our own Lord, we're gonna do our own thing, we're going to be violent towards other people, et cetera, et cetera. And we see something, we desire it, we take it, and then destruction. And so what happened was is we decided to bring a little bit of hell on earth, and so with that, we began to push heaven out. We said get out of here. And so now we have hell on earth, you have heaven that's being pulled out from this, because we're pushing it out and then just continuing to unleash hell literally on everyone around us and, again, human condition. Look at the patterns, look at history over and over and over again.

Speaker 2: 28:49

But yet Jesus comes and he's saying the kingdom of heaven is near. Like this is now beginning this new process again of like reconciling all of this and we're going to then bring this back in and heaven and earth are going to be reconciled and redeemed and this is where this final judgment takes place. And so what happens is in this separation based on what's gone on, is he has to sit here and be like hell is literally being pushed out, and then you are choosing that it's here. So there is a hell, there is judgment, heaven and earth will all become one again. This is where it will be, but there is a choice and there's a separation and it's for those who have decided. This is the hell I choose for myself, not that he chose it for you. It's ours, we've created it. It's being invaded back, heaven is storming away and it's gonna come back.

Speaker 2: 29:43

I hope that's helpful, just as like a real big, overarching picture of the narrative. But here's the deal, friends you and I will face Jesus Christ. We will give an account. So be attentive Because, frankly, he's already here and what we need to do is to learn how to attune ourselves to what the spirit is up to and to be faithful, because he will judge. And so I'm actually gonna invite you all today into a moment to reflect with God.

Speaker 2: 30:21

Maybe that's a reflection that involves repentance, confession. Maybe it's just a self-evaluation. Maybe for some of you are new here or new to this idea of Jesus, or just learning about the kingdom of heaven, what it looks to participate. Maybe this is going to be a few moments of an invitation to actually ask yourself am I ready to actually let Jesus be the Lord and Savior of my life, the ruler and decider of what's going down? Essentially to put the wheel down and then let him direct and rule, because that's been the invitation. So maybe that's something that you're going to assess today.

Speaker 2: 31:03

For the church person those of you who have already accepted and proclaimed that Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life what is the Spirit inviting you in to assess today?

Speaker 2: 31:18

If that's the test and you're going to reflect against that?

Speaker 2: 31:22

What is he inviting you to assess about yourself, what you're doing? You know a simple thought may be for you of you know. Many of you maybe have made new promises this year like this is what I'm going to do, I'm going to do me, I'm going to get this, I'm going to have this. You know, like a lot of times it can be really internal, and you know self how many of the things that you have committed to in this upcoming future are things that are like this is how I'm going to take care of that person. This is the life that I'm going to try to illuminate. This is a place where I'm going to bring the salt. This is an invitation for all of us. We're going to spend 60 long seconds and I want to invite you to milk it for all it's worth. Who are you? Where are you? What is the spirit talking to you about? And my hope and prayer for you right now is that he would give you ears to hear and eyes to see.